Sunday, 15 November 2015

That song has been ringing in my head ever since last week's episode of Empire...
Anyway...
And it was appropriate for the heading of this post.

So a bunch of terrorists claiming to be ISIS shot up Paris day before yesterday. It was very sad. CNN had updates all day yesterday as a result. Twitter started a hashtag #PrayforParis. Art was drawn to commemorate this horrible thing that happened...
I'm not saying its wasn't horrible. Hell I shed some tears for them. Its sad that people have to resort to this kind of mayhem to communicate. Its Piers Morgan who said though that more people were killed by guns in America in that same 48 hour period than were killed in the entire Paris Attack. Furthermore, the same day, Beirut was bombed. Did CNN mention it? I didn't see it squeezed in anywhere in the 24 hour coverage of Paris.

I guess we can't pray for everyone; we need to concentrate on the important ones. The ones that happen in the West right? Because obviously the rest of us third world dunderheads are used to dying anyway, it's normal to be shot up, kidnapped, bombed, our lives are not as important. Don't we get that?
Anyway, that's a story for another day; I'm not one for banging my head on a brick wall.
This post is about asking hard questions and getting difficult answers.
What is ISIS? Does anyone even know?
We are told that they started in Syria, some time after the world abandoned it, the UN council turned their backs on the possibility of rescuing Syrian citizens from being murdered by the state. They said, "It's not our problem."
Well it is now isn't it bitches?
But really how much do we really know about them? Who are they? What is their leadership structure? How do you confirm that every attack that claims to be ISIS is actually ISIS? Is ISIS simply some big fat boogeyman that the West invented to take credit for any attack that happens on Western soil in order to avoid dealing with the fact that shit happens within their borders and it is their fault? What happened to Al Qaeda? How come they don't exist anymore? Is it like a game of tag and ISIS is 'it' now?
How come ISIS takes all recruits? It's more 'disenfranchised of the world' rather than 'radical muslims'. And how does ISIS even find these people to be recruited. Is there an online form you fill and submit and then 'somebody will contact you at your earliest convenience'? Is there a secret facebook group maybe masquerading as 'Harry Potter Fans'? (the movies not the books). How does it come off as this all powerful, super secret thing which recruits from everywhere but nobody actually knows where and despite the NSA and satellites and shit, nobody ever finds out what they're doing...
I'm more inclined to believe that these guys wanted to blow up Paris for their own nefarious reasons and they planned it and did it and then 'ISIS' take the blame/credit probably to propagate hatred of muslims. That seems more logical to me.
Otherwise why does no one come forth with demands? When people commit an act of terror or whatever there is a reason behind it; they want something. But we're never told what these people want. Why they're doing this. And there doesn't seem to ever be an effort to find out. Its just oh, some guys blew us up; war, kill, bomb...make more radicals. Wash, rinse, repeat.

I'm sick of it.
Stop the hate!

This book is about another kind of hate; plus the power of love...cop it at smashwords below: http://bit.ly/1LmcX1s

Friday, 13 November 2015

Its not that I haven't had topics I wanted to share with you recently; I've been hampered by two main challenges. My writing plate is so full, I don't have time to write. Like in my day job writing; I've set myself some really narrow deadlines so I can fulfill some commitments that I have. I literally have time for nothing else. Except maybe reading fanfics...more about that later.

So I'm writing a mixed race story for a client and the girl is stressed about a situation she finds herself in. In modern day patois, in a word like stressful, the t is sometimes replaced with a k. I am sitting here wondering if it would be racist to spell the word that way (skressful) because maybe that's how she would think it. Not only is it a spelling boo boo according to microsoft word, but the client might not understand what I'm tryna say. Hashtag my dilemmas.

You might recall that I wrote a post once about escaping real life through stories? Well life has not exactly been easy the last few months so I've been escaping with gusto. Not just to my usual fanfics although considering how many stories I subscribe to its a wonder my inbox is not clogged with updates (seriously though why is my inbox not clogged with updates? Y'all need to update more regularly), but also a real life story of love, life and betrayal.
Do you guys watch Love and Hip Hop Hollywood? Yeah, neither do I. But this couple from the show came on Wendell Williams a few weeks ago. They were so pretty, in sync, like a tag team of really good looking guys. Okay duo of guys. Did I mention they were gay? Black and gay in hip hop. Anywho, like two days after the show, I heard that they broke up. Apparently all that love and togetherness; and happily ever after gay love? Not so much.

What had happened was that one of them found out the other was cheating. Like with four guys and he hadn't been faithful to him a day in their two year relationship. What fascinated me is that the other completely denied it. Even after the first guy produced receipts he was still like "Oh my Gaad, I don't know what I did to deserve this. Woe is me. I came out for you and now you have abandoned me."
The twitter subliminals alone...Even after it came out that even his coming out was fake because everyone already knew he was gay.
And I'm thinking, why would this guy tell such blatant lies knowing that receipts exist that could expose him for a fraud. He reminded me of that guy in Con Air who was told by the pilot of the plane, "If you kill me, who will fly your plane?" and he said "I don't think that far ahead."
Except unlike Miles Brock he totally does think that far ahead because he could fly the plane. Miles is like 1000 miles up with no parachute. The other guy still loves him though; you can tell by how obsessed they are with each other on social media. Will they work it out? Despite everything I find myself hoping so.

Speaking of things which may or may not work out, pick up TheSwamp. You set the price!

It might say NATIONAL novel writing month but the truth is its should actually say Worldwide because trust me there's people from everywhere participating. I thought maybe about fleshing out the Bulitia story for this one but on further reflection, I didn't think I could get 50,000 words out of him, much as he's a great character. So I decided to do my CINDERELLA BY ANY OTHER NAME story about a girl called Shadya who is a refugee from Somalia living in Kenya. Its not as sad and oppressed as it sounds...yet, it is. Its really about family and how far one would or should go to give of oneself to one's family. Wow, I managed to summarise. Awesome.

I'm going to leave a small excerpt here, and what I need from you is to ask me and remind me and push me to finish this story within the month of November. Nanowrimo books are generally free and mine will be the same I think. Follow my progress here, on smashwords and on the wrimo site.

Life is A Bitch and then...

The beat of the music
was like a hammer to her brain, pounding and pounding until her nerves felt
like ash. She wanted to get out of this place but Amina was still busy flirting
with the dude in the pretentious green fedora and yep - Shadya peeked downward
- he had white shoes. I mean…everyone knew that any guy worth their salt never
wore white shoes. Amina was giggling at what ever the guy was saying. Shadya caught sight of his friend sidling
toward her out of the corner of her eye.

Nope.
She was not going to play this game. She wasn’t the spare, or the co-pilot,
flight attendant; whatever people called the friend one went with when they
were going to hit on people. She was here strictly to make sure Amina behaved
herself. It was the only way to make sure they weren’t both married off to the
nearest willing chump forthwith. Shadya had every intention of completing her
degree before she agreed to be anyone’s wife. And sure her father was willing
to entertain her fancies for now; but if he ever caught wind of any misbehaviour,
both of their lives were over.

She
hadn’t even wanted to come to this club. Amina had just really been wailing to
her about how it was her friend’s birthday and they never got to go anywhere
and yada yada yada. Until Shadya’s choices had narrowed down to strangling her
right there and then; or give in to her begging and pleading. Shadya had really
had to think about her options before she concluded that she really couldn’t
kill Amina at this time. She hadn’t violated any sharia laws after all…not yet. Nothing requiring murder at least.
Her mother might frown on her committing fratricide for any reason less than
that.

The
guy’s friend was sitting right next to her now. Shadya studiously ignored him.

“Hi”,
the guy said. Shadya stared into the middle distance, willing the music to
explode her head right now.

“I
like your hijab. Very stylish”, the guy said leaning in to talk directly into
her ear. Shadya turned her eyes only to give him a glare. Clearly non-verbal
communication was not his strong
suit. What did he even want?

“Leave
me be”, she growled tossing her head the other way as she picked up her soda
and sipped determinedly as she watched the dancers on the dance floor.

“Do
you want to dance?” the guy persisted. Shadya contemplated pouring her
drink over his head. Amina was throwing
glances her way that Shadya knew were reproachful. Her sister was always
throwing herself at men; and she fully expected Shadya to do the same when they
were together. It drove her mad. She didn’t deign to answer the guy.

“Look,
Shadya”, the guy said making her stiffen and turn toward him. How had he known
her name? “I don’t want us to start off on the wrong foot but I have to say
that you’re being really rude right now”. Shadya could only stare at him in
shock.

“Nobody
asked you to talk to me”, she said in her surprise.

The
guy frowned and glanced back at Amina, “Your sister asked me to”, he said,
looking sincerely puzzled that Shadya wasn’t up to date with the news. Shadya
laughed out loud.

“Well
you can just go tell Amina thanks but no thanks”, She told him. He stuck his
hand out.

“My
name is Gregory Kariuki, ahsalaam aleikum”, he said.

Shadya
looked at his hand like it possibly might be a hunk of bacon accidentally put
on her plate.